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June 15, 2012

The United Nations calls again for investigation of JRC’s shock treatments

A scathing article concerning the abuses against children with disabilities at the Judge Rotenberg Center (JRC) was published Saturday by the Guardian of London. Juan Mendez, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture, told the Guardian he is “very concerned,” about the use of electric shocks as aversive treatment on children with disabilities at JRC. “I feel very strongly that electricity applied to a person’s body creates a very extreme form of pain. There are a lot of lingering consequences including mental illness that can be devastating,” Mendez said.

According to the Guardian, Mendez has opened discussions with the US mission to the United Nations, plans on contacting the US State Department, and has the option of reporting the abuses to the UN human rights council. In 2010, Mendez’s predecessor as the Special Rapporteur, Manfred Nowak, responded to an urgent appeal filed by DRI finding that the electric shocks at JRC constituted torture. “I have no doubts about it,” said Nowak, “It is inflicted in a situation where a victim is powerless. And, I mean, a child in the restraint chair, being then subjected to electric shocks, how more powerless can you be?”